Solar investments in India

Solar energy has become the dominant renewable energy source in India in terms of investments, with $5.6 billion being invested in 2015, which is almost half of the total RE investments made in India. RE investments increased by 22% in India overall as per Bloomberg, topping $10 billion in investments. Wind and Solar accounted for almost 90% of the total investments. Biomass and small hydro energy which used to dominate investments before 2010, have almost disappeared from investor’s horizons. Given Indian government’s targets for 2022, small hydro and biomass will continue to languish becoming a niche sector. Solar Energy will become even more dominant in years to come.

Read about State Owned PFCs investing in Green Power Plants in India.

2015 saw 2 GW of solar capacity being added and this will increase by 5x times to around 10 GW by 2017, if the recent large tenders by state and central agencies get executed in time. Solar energy is not only dominating the RE space, but is also becoming the dominant electricity source with most investments going into the solar energy industry. While wind energy has not done badly, the capacity increase in wind energy has stalled now compared solar energy, the investments still kept pace at more than $4 billion. It is hoped that wind energy capacity will increase, given that the government’s target implies a 5 GW annual run rate, which is roughly double what it is now. The government will also bring out a National Wind Energy Mission similar to solar energy, to promote investment in this RE technology.

Even globally investments are increasing in solar energy, as cost declines have made it competitive with not only gas and wind but also thermal power prices. This is not taking into account the carbon emitted by fossil fuel sources such as coal and gas. Solar prices have come down to the 5-6 cents/kWh level in most countries, making it truly competitive in the economic sense and posing a huge threat to other energy sources. Though oil prices have declined sharply, solar investments and RE investments have increased in 2015. This shows that solar energy is no longer a hostage to oil price movements, with governments providing solid support and favorable economics also supporting solar energy.

Overall global RE investment increased by 4% in 2015 to around $330 billion, as most countries increase RE mix in their overall energy procurement mix.